CITIZEN DEVELOPER GUIDE
This website is a guide and is not intended to replace professional advice. Please see our disclaimer for more information!
Our Services
Want to know how we help our clients turn complex housing challenges into work that supports real change?
We work with you to understand complex housing challenges, define a clear path forward, and deliver the research, strategies, engagement programs, and digital tools needed to put ideas into action. Our services are organized across three connected pillars: Housing Research, Strategy & Implementation; Community Engagement & Education; and Digital Tools & Interactive Platforms.
Design Research
We translate complex policy into spatial outcomes using data analysis, architectural design, and consultation. This helps to visualize how planning frameworks, building regulations and economic systems impact the kinds of housing that can be built, and supports evidence-based decision-making to achieve desired housing models.
We translate complex policy into spatial outcomes using data analysis, architectural design, and consultation. This helps to visualize how planning frameworks, building regulations and economic systems impact the kinds of housing that can be built, and supports evidence-based decision-making to achieve desired housing models.
Consultation
We work with municipalities, organizations, and community partners to support the development of policies and programs that promote gentle density. Through data integration, spatial analysis, and participatory workshops, we help identify opportunities, clarify regulatory barriers, and co-develop practical strategies for housing implementation.
We work with municipalities, organizations, and community partners to support the development of policies and programs that promote gentle density. Through data integration, spatial analysis, and participatory workshops, we help identify opportunities, clarify regulatory barriers, and co-develop practical strategies for housing implementation.
Education
Our goal is to make conversations around housing development more accessible. We have developed a series of easy-to-understand resources to help anyone interested in taking on a gentle density project. We also run workshops for groups interested in promoting gentle density development.
Our goal is to make conversations around housing development more accessible. We have developed a series of easy-to-understand resources to help anyone interested in taking on a gentle density project. We also run workshops for groups interested in promoting gentle density development.
See how our skills are shaping our clients and communities with these featured projects.
The Modular Manual, produced for the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada, translates the complexities of prefabricated construction into a clear and practical resource for co-operative housing providers. Drawing on Canada-wide research and interviews with industry practitioners, the 20-page primer explains the different types of prefabrication, their benefits and trade-offs, and the practical considerations involved in using them, all supported by diagrams, case studies, useful tips, and real-world insights.
Drawing on our team’s experience in architectural design and housing research, we develop a series of visualizations for the City of Ottawa to demonstrate how their new zoning bylaws could shape future development. Our team translated the proposed zoning rules into concept models and placed them within models of existing neighbourhoods, showing how the new forms of housing allowed under the new bylaws might fit into the city's existing urban fabric. The visuals support community consultation while also testing how the regulations could be interpreted by designers in practice.
For FutureBUILDS, we developed and helped facilitate a series of workshops introducing participants to the fundamentals of small-scale real estate development. The initial session focused on project budgeting and included hands-on feasibility and costing exercises using a custom workbook created by our team. The partnership has grown into multiple rounds of curriculum and workshop delivery covering topics such as site analysis, development budgeting, feasibility studies, and project planning. Our last event had over 75 participants!
We are proud to have worked with leading organizations across the public, private, academic and non-profit sectors.
We'd love to hear from you!
Have a housing challenge, research question or project idea you would like to explore? We would be glad to discuss how our team can support it.
Use our Contact Form or reach us directly at info@rehousing.ca!
